Complete HarpWeek Explanation:Like the previous cartoon, A. B. Frost's "Chorus of Hungry Democrats,"
artist Thomas Nast also raises the subject of the miserliness of the wealthy
William English, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee. Nast portrays
Democratic presidential nominee Winfield Hancock as a stately lion guarding
Governor's Island, where the general was stationed as commander of the U.S.
Army's Atlantic Division. Hancock frowns at his running mate, stuck on the tip
of his tail, who holds a document reading "Praise but No Money."
English's letter of acceptance effusively extolled the virtues of the
presidential nominee, but Hancock and other Democrats were irritated by the
Indianapolis banker's refusal to donate his own money to the campaign. In an age
when attacks on political opponents were unapologetically direct, rather than
subliminal, Nast caricatures the Democratic ticket as besieged by "(Democ)RATS"
scurrying to find morsels of political patronage and government largesse.